Paul Noonan of Bell X1: 'We always get a great reception in Cork'
Dominic Phillips, Paul Noonan and David Geraghty of Bell X1 in Cork recently. Picture: Larry Cummins
"I'm heading to the penthouse in the Imperial Hotel to meet Paul Swoonan."
"What? Where? WHO?" says my husband, his voice an octave higher than usual.
"Paul Noonan, darling, from Bell X1, my favourite Irish band. No big deal," I thrill. "BYEEEE."
As I glide up the secret lift to the penthouse, I grudgingly take off my 'annoy my husband' hat and put on my 'professional interviewer' hat. It's not as fetching, but I only have 30 minutes, and a job to do, so I'm all business when Paul strolls over to me. I smile and shake his precious, talented hand, and we sit on a velvet sofa, inches apart. I hold his gaze for an appropriate amount of time (3.3 seconds - I looked it up) and get out my notebook. I scan his face, there is no sign of alarm, or looking over my shoulder for security. Let us begin.
The reason I'm here is because Noonan, along with his fellow Bell X1 troubadours, David Geraghty and Dominic Phillips, are gearing up for a series of gigs, beginning with Live at the Marquee on June 10. Their latest album, Merciful Hour, is released on May 28.
So let's kick off with all the exciting new things! This is the band's eighth studio album, their first since the eclectic Arms in 2016, and 'Haint Blue' is the first single (along with a mesmerising video) to be released.
'Haint Blue', Noonan explains, is a particular shade of the colour used to paint porches in southern America to ward off ghosts, or 'Haints’.
"Dave and I, for this record, we're taking fragments of our lives and running with them," says Noonan. "It's an adventurous record, psychedelic at times, there's magic realism in there, exploring the unexplained. I suppose we are getting back to the magic of music and what draws us to it."
I tell him the song sounds familiar, could I have heard it before? Maybe when they last played in Cork?
"Yeah, we got to play 'Haint Blue' at Live at St Luke's, before we recorded it. That was when we toured with Dowry Strings, we retrofit strings into our existing songs, it was quite a different way of presenting our work, a real shot in the arm. So, with this new album, we wanted some songs in to feature strings quite prominently."
Did they enjoy playing to their faithful fans in an old church?
"We always get a great reception in Cork. St Luke's seems the spiritual home for the Dowry Strings shows, we recorded a live album, it had a real resonance there."
Of course, amazing as that venue is, there are other pretty cool spots to play a gig in Cork, I prompt.
"We've probably played more venues in Cork than any other county. There's no end to great places in Cork. We've played Connelly's of Leap, Levis' in Ballydehob, the Triskel; back in the day we played the Lobby Bar, The Half Moon Club. We even played Nancy Spain's as Juniper."
Ye hardly saw Nirvana in Henry's did ye? I ask.
"No but we played there, again as Juniper, a long time ago now," he smiles. "Venues like De Barra's in Clonakilty have such a rich musical heritage. The people who run these places are the guardians of the flame, they nurture art and artists, they're not first and foremost commercial entities, they are cultural entities."
I casually mention seeing them play in De Barra's and what an intimate space it is.
"Yeah, I love playing those intimate venues, but I love playing the Marquee too, it's a different energy and it's great to be able to present the music in different ways."
This segues nicely into Paul's other passion now. Having completed a music therapy course at University of Limerick, he was on placement at a Dublin school when lockdown hit. Now he works as a freelance therapist with a variety of clients. Is that taking him away from the band?
"Bell X1 is the mothership, for sure. It's sprung various tentacles and tangents, but we'd all have always gone out and done other things. It's really healthy for us to see other people," he laughs. I jam my 'professional writer' hat on tight and let him continue.
"The music therapy work feeds the songwriting, they're symbiotic. It's given me more of an awareness of what other people live with, parents with children with severe autism, people with dementia. It's been very satisfying to deploy my music background in those settings and help people.
"Measurable outcomes are tricky with music, it's hard to describe what music is and does but there's indicators and you can see if they've been achieved."
Speaking of indicators, am I right in saying a certain someone hits the half-century mark soon?
"Yeah, I don't care about that. I'm sure it'll hit me at the time but I'm kinda putting it off. Phones in the air at gigs, I don't understand. I mean what are you going to do with that? i don't think the internet needs any more footage of sweaty middle-aged Irishmen," he laughs.
I beg to differ but back to the idea of Haints and the otherworldliness of their new single, is Paul a believer in spooks?
"I'm a lot more open to the possibility of spirits and things we don't understand," he says. "I used to be quite a staunch atheist. I went through a period of being quite humourless about it all. Our kids went to the Educate Together school. I hope I've given them something else, like nature, but there's possibly a vacuum there. Both the kids like music and sing but have never been arsed to pick up an instrument, but they're surrounded by it, maybe it'll work by osmosis.
"Things that music speaks to, the unexplainable, the irrational - that's a real attraction for me. We're still growing in our own lives - boring as they are," he smiles.
His life, married to Dutch woman Amy Van Den Broek, with two young children, his various collaborative relationships like House Plants, a burgeoning music therapy career, a summer of live Bell X 1 gigs, and the new album ready to hit the shelves, is, I can only speculate, anything but boring. And the excitement is already building for his Cork gig.
- Bell X1 play Live at the Marquee, Cork, on June 10, with support from Soda Blonde.
- Tickets: https://www.ticketmaster.ie/bell-x1-live-at-the-marquee-cork-tickets/venueartist/197770/1182179
- The album Merciful Hour is available to pre-order now in advance of its release on May 26
Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O'Hagan, It's an inspiring discussion about art and life.
Danny Glover's Atlanta.
I listened to Green by REM on the drive on the way down to Cork, that was one of the records that I fell in love in music to, one of those formative, seminal things.
James Taylor. It was beautiful. And a John Prine tribute show in Vicar Street.
Ed Smith’s, he spoke to me about records that have meant a lot to me.
